


Melody of the Stone

by CyclonicJet



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 23:11:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15496866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyclonicJet/pseuds/CyclonicJet





	Melody of the Stone

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining high in the sky with nary a cloud to be seen. Below it lay an endless series of meadows, covered with a dazzling array of wildflowers. A gentle breeze swept over the fields. Bunnies hopped merrily between them, insects buzzed to and fro, and the lone figure of a man stood basking in it all. 

He was leaned against his sword, buried in the ground behind him. Between his lips he held a flute and from it a calming melody was wound, which fluttered away from him to suffuse all the world around it with its joy. The world could hardly have been more idyllic. Then wafting over the flowers came the sound of a woman yelling, and earth cracking.

The man neither flinched nor took heed to move as a wall of stone rapidly approached him. Atop the column of rock stood a young woman, who was clearly struggling to maintain her balance as the stone jostled from side to side dangerously. Seeing the man before her she yelped and tried to turn aside, to urge the stone to move in another direction. 

It half worked, as the rock suddenly turned sharply left instead of gracefully arcing as she had intended. The sudden change of direction of the stone relative to herself caused the girl to be thrown clean off the rock and sail through the air. She soared past the man who, without pausing his flute, just silently shook his head in disappointment. Then she promptly landed face first into the dirt.

"Control young Sparrow." Yasuo said lowering his instrument. "You must learn control."

Taliyah lifted herself off out of the grass, spitting out grass as she did. "I am trying master." she sputtered wiping the muck from her face. "But I fear the stone does not yet respect my command of it. I can invoke it to serve me and I see the weave more clearly now then ever, but the stone seems to work constantly against me. It's always trying to buck me off, and the harder I try to enforce my will upon it, the more it resists."

Yasuo closed his eyes and dipped his head. "You must learn to work not at odds with the stone, but with it. Treat it as an extension of yourself, no different from your arms or your legs."

Taliyah stared at him thoughtfully for a moment, then began to pace back and forth before him. Through her feet she could feel the earth. To others it may have seemed still and lifeless, but in her presence it shifted and leapt and could not have been more alive. 'Treat it as an extension of herself?' she thought to herself. How was she to do that...perhaps if she tried commanding it the way she did her arm to move, without any real thought. Is that what master meant? Well it was worth a try she supposed.

Taking a deep breath she called to the stone beneath her. It answered by blossoming out of the ground in a great column, propelling her upwards and then forwards as she ordered it to move. The shaking began immediately as it always did, the rock swaying from side to side in a desperate attempt to free itself of her. It seemed to her that while the stone revelled in the fact it was free of the ground, it remained stubbornly dismissive of being told what to do.

Taking a deep breath Taliyah steadied herself mentally. She allowed herself to be free of the effort of consciously controlling the flow of the rock, while maintaining enough mental contact to keep her perception of its weave. In an instant everything felt more natural. No longer under instruction the rock steadied itself at last, seemingly glad that it was no longer being dictated to. Taliyah's delight was short lived though as suddenly the stone began to dance around. It moved without heed, in any direction it fancied, before suddenly it seemingly decided to dive back into the ground and throw her once again face first into the dirt. Perhaps she had given up a little too much control she mused to herself.

"Better." Yasuo said as she walked back to him. “But you also must learn to balance the extremes. Too much control and the rock will fight you for dominance, conversely too little control will lead to the rock doing as it pleases. Somewhere between these two lies a place where you and the rock can work harmoniously together. But that balance is a place that you alone can find."

Taliyah huffed and summoned a stone outcropping from the ground and perched herself on top of it, sitting with her legs dangling over the side. She sat for a long time thinking. Yasuo for his part returned to playing his flute, letting the melody act to sooth her mind and provide her clarity of thought.

Balance. The word kept bouncing around her mind. A slew of ideas and thoughts rushed by but none of them felt right, none of them could help her find the balance she seeked. The slew became an avalanche as more and more thoughts came to her unbidden, until at last her head began to hurt with the strain.

She blinked and relaxed her mind. She refocused on the world around her, allowing that to occupy the entirety of her mind. Doing so allowed to again hear the melody of the flute, it soothed her greatly and she felt her mind refreshed by it. She felt at peace. She felt relaxed. She felt…

She leapt to her feet so abruptly that several rabbits that had been lazing around in the flowers suddenly scattered away in every direction. Inspiration had come to her at last! Keeping the melody fixed in her mind she leapt forward and summoned the rock to her. Except this time she felt like she had almost asked the stones permission, rather than demanding it. It complied and burst up to meet her, already the whole experience felt different.

The stone remained balanced and level, neither seeking to buck her or challenge her authority. She again kept her consciousness loose and free, while keeping the tune of the flute wafting through her head. The stone did not charge in any direction it liked, nor did it go where she directed it. Instead she found herself working together with the stone in deciding where was best to go. She shifted her weight to the right and the stone seemed to have agreed it was the right decision, for they both sailed right in a graceful curving arc. But rather then feeling giddy or elated, Taliyah felt as calm as she ever had done. It felt as natural as breathing to her now.

Diverting her eyes she saw that Yasuo had ceased his song and was watching her now. But while he no longer played she could still hear the melody as clear as if he were. Gracefully she tilted herself back towards him and thanked the stone for its help. She allowed it to sink back towards the ground, where it deposited her gently at the point from where she had first leapt off from.

She held her masters eye for a long while. Neither flinched or said a word. Then a light smile touched his face as he dipped his head in a sign of satisfaction. "You have at last found your balance young sparrow. May it serve you well."

Taliyah beamed and leaned over herself fully in a bow. "Only by the graces of your teaching master," she said, "and by the beauty of your melody."

  



End file.
